Long ballots on First Coast expected to lead to long lines on election day

Timothy J. Gibbons

Tuesday

Oct 23, 2012 at 6:45 PM

Planning on voting in person Nov. 6? Better be prepared for a bit of a wait.

The combination of an extraordinarily long ballot and fewer precincts than in the past is expected to lead to voters spending more time casting their votes and a concomitant backup of people waiting.

"It's going to be challenging for all concerned," said Chris Chambless, the Clay County supervisor of elections.

Clocking in at almost 4,000 words, the four-page ballot contains more than two dozen races and decisions. Just reading it takes about 17 minutes, figures Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland.

One voter who filled out the form in the supervisor's office took 45 minutes to digest it all, Holland said. "If a lot of people do that, things will back up," he said.

Coming Sunday: Look for the voters guide in print and online

Related: Breaking down the amendments on this year's Florida ballot

Early voting sites: See below

Voters must then feed both pages of the oversized cardstock into the scanner, doubling the time it took to record votes in years with one-page ballots.

During the primary, Holland said, the problem was exacerbated by machines that began to slow down as the day wore on: Instead of the six or seven seconds it should take to scan the ballots, he said, it was taking 17 or 18 seconds.

That situation was caused by the way the scanner kept the ballot image in memory, Holland said, and has since been fixed. "Fewer voters turn out in the primary, which allows you the opportunity to make corrections," he said.

Those software changes have been reviewed and approved by the state.

But shaving off the extra time simply stops the clock from ticking even higher: Reading, comprehending and making a choice on the dense and complicated amendment questions will take a while, period.

Those amendments take up the bulk of the space on the ballot, with the summary for Amendment 1 at nearly 300 words and Amendment 4 with 664 words.

"When you have a ballot that has nearly 4,000 words, that's going to take an enormous effort on the part of the voters," Chambless said.

In all, voters will be faced with making a decision on 11 state constitutional amendments, including ones dealing with the funding of religious organizations, an exemption for personal property tax and a change to who gets appointed to the state university system board of governors.

The longest issues are No. 5, which would require Senate confirmation of state Supreme Court justices, among other changes; and No. 4, which would change the homestead exemption system.

This is the largest batch of amendments facing voters in 14 years, since the 13 amendments on the ballot in 1998.

Some voters will also have to deal with a change in where they vote, with Duval County having 53 fewer precincts than in years past. As with Clay County, which cut 14 polling places, Duval slimmed down the number of voting locations as a way of saving money, usually by merging precincts that saw little turnout with ones nearby.

Holland's office has sent voter registration cards and sample ballots that both indicate where they should go, but he is expecting some voters to show up at the place they've gone in the past.

"The worst that can happen is you go to vote at 6:50 at your old precinct and you find out that isn't your precinct," Holland said. "Then you have a problem."

The polls close at 7 p.m.

Workers with laptops will be at each old site to help direct voters to the proper polling location, Holland said.

Still, with early voting beginning next week and some already beginning to vote by mail, election supervisors are hoping those casting ballots before voting day will help relieve some of the pressure.

In 2008, 64 percent of voters cast their ballot before election day, Holland said. If that number holds, things should go more smoothly, he said.

Otherwise, the onus is on voters to show up prepared, cutting their time in the voting booth to however long it takes to fill in the proper bubbles.

"Please," Holland said, "don't come to the polls for the first time never having looked at the ballot."

timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4103

WHERE TO VOTEElection Day is Tuesday,Nov. 6. Early voting continues through Saturday at the following locations.